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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Latest News
The RAIN scale: A good intention that falls short
Radiation protection specialists agree that clear communication of radiation risks remains a vexing challenge that cannot be solved solely by finding new ways to convey technical information.
Earlier this year, an article in Nuclear News described a new radiation risk communication tool, known as the Radiation Index, or, RAIN (“Let it RAIN: A new approach to radiation communication,” NN, Jan. 2025, p. 36). The authors of the article created the RAIN scale to improve radiation risk communication to the general public who are not well-versed in important aspects of radiation exposures, including radiation dose quantities, units, and values; associated health consequences; and the benefits derived from radiation exposures.
Joakim D. Bergroth, Hanna M. K. Koskinen, Jari O. Laarni
Nuclear Technology | Volume 202 | Number 2 | May-June 2018 | Pages 278-289
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1420335
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Advanced technologies (e.g., virtual and augmented reality) may provide new possibilities to facilitate control room (CR) design and evaluation activities. We studied how immersive three-dimensional (3-D) virtual reality environments may augment and advance the evaluation of safety-critical nuclear power plant CR systems. A multiuser functionality enables several operators to be located and to collaborate in the same virtual CR environment at the same time. There is also a realistic representation of emergency operating procedures in the virtual CR. Spatial audio communication through headsets makes the experience even more realistic. The paper addresses both technical and human factors issues associated with the use of immersive 3-D virtual reality environments in CR validation tests, for example, the amount of technical resources required as compared to normal validation in a real-life physical simulator environment, creation of methodologically new testing opportunities, and new opportunities for data registration and analysis. A new framework has been established for estimating the needed fidelity level of the virtual CR for the type of system evaluation at hand.